Tacsi: General Mohammed Abshir Muse

[Grant]

I received this sad news from a lawyer member of the PC group, who kept in touch with the General after he moved to the US. AUN.

"For those of you who knew General Mohamed Abshir, Commander of the Somali National Police Force from independence until the Siad Barre coup, he passed away today.

For those of you who did not know him personally, he was a great friend of the Peace Corps. In the early years, he made all the District Police stations' radio communications available to PCVs in the field and the police District Commanders were instructed to ensure the safety of PCVs in their Districts.

For Somali 4s, he partnered with Bob Blackburn in our memorable Taleh (Taleex) adventure and enabled us to travel from Hargeisa by Mercedes police troop transports to Said Mohamed's fortress. And of course to meet Major Cosa Fare and the Darawish and to spend that remarkable Independence Day celebration outside the walls of Taleh.

I know from working at Police Headquarters for almost two years, and my meetings with him in the 1980s after he was released from solitary confinement in prison, he was a true Somali nationalist and a democrat (with a small d.)

I last saw him in Bosasso in 1993 when he was fighting Islamic extremists and saving, what is now Puntland, from the ravages of the warlords and clan in fighting. Subsequently, he came to the US and settled in Minnesota and he and I had numerous telephone calls over the years, usually on Idd al Fitr and July 1st. In the past few years he suffered from dementia but something deep within him remembered and he always asked me to extend his best wishes to Howa (Evelyn.)

Regards Marty"

Here's his Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Abshir_Muse

He is the large man at the left in this photo, taken at our group's initiation at Taleex, the first week of July, 1966. I am next to the flag on the right.

 

[xisaabiye]

I received this sad news from a lawyer member of the PC group, who kept in touch with the General after he moved to the US. AUN.

"For those of you who knew General Mohamed Abshir, Commander of the Somali National Police Force from independence until the Siad Barre coup, he passed away today.

For those of you who did not know him personally, he was a great friend of the Peace Corps. In the early years, he made all the District Police stations' radio communications available to PCVs in the field and the police District Commanders were instructed to ensure the safety of PCVs in their Districts.

For Somali 4s, he partnered with Bob Blackburn in our memorable Taleh (Taleex) adventure and enabled us to travel from Hargeisa by Mercedes police troop transports to Said Mohamed's fortress. And of course to meet Major Cosa Fare and the Darawish and to spend that remarkable Independence Day celebration outside the walls of Taleh.

I know from working at Police Headquarters for almost two years, and my meetings with him in the 1980s after he was released from solitary confinement in prison, he was a true Somali nationalist and a democrat (with a small d.)

I last saw him in Bosasso in 1993 when he was fighting Islamic extremists and saving, what is now Puntland, from the ravages of the warlords and clan in fighting. Subsequently, he came to the US and settled in Minnesota and he and I had numerous telephone calls over the years, usually on Idd al Fitr and July 1st. In the past few years he suffered from dementia but something deep within him remembered and he always asked me to extend his best wishes to Howa (Evelyn.)

Regards Marty"

Here's his Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Abshir_Muse

He is the large man at the left in this photo, taken at our group's initiation at Taleex, the first week of July, 1966. I am next to the flag on the right.


View attachment 32805

Is that you in the striped tucked in shirt on the right

 

[Descendent-Of-Fiqi]

AUN
A true patriot

 

[embarassing]

AUN

 

[Bahal]

AUN

I might disagree with you on many subjects, but as always, good to have you here

 

[xisaabiye]

@Grant What other big names did you meet back then and do you have any interesting stories/incidents

 

[Madaxkuti]

@Grant What other big names did you meet back then and do you have any interesting stories/incidents

Is he actually an cadaan oday no way? really

 

[xisaabiye]

Is he actually an cadaan oday no way? really

Yeah he used to post on somnet back in the day kkkk. Dude is more somali than most ppl on here

 

[jamal9]

Grant was a CIA spy with the mission of making sure USSR did turn Somalia into a communist state. Peace Corps was just a cover. Can you post your current photo?

 

[Grant]

@Grant What other big names did you meet back then and do you have any interesting stories/incidents

Hersi Magan Isse was my language instructor. Virginia Shine, the redhead in the photo, married Dr Mohammed Abdillahi Jama Sifir, Somaliland envoy to Kenya, who was also a language instructor. Shire Jama Ahmed visited the group at Columbia. John Johnson, who is next to me in the photo, worked with Musa Galaal. The two of them are responsible for most of the Somali material at Indiana State University.

 

[merka]

AUN

 

[Luna]

AUN

 

[ethan bradberry]

AUN

 

[Xooshdheere]

@Grant What year did you first visit Somalia?

 

[Grant]

@Grant What year did you first visit Somalia?

1966.

 

[Xooshdheere]

1966.

Did you met Siad Barre and other high ranking military/government officials?

 

[Grant]

I was mostly stuck in Jilib. Once the rains came, there was no traveling. I think I spent a grand total of a week or less in Mog. I knew the local officials in the Lower Jubba, but Siad Barre wasn't even on the radar when I left in 1967. General Daud was much better known.

 

[Saalax Bidaar]

I received this sad news from a lawyer member of the PC group, who kept in touch with the General after he moved to the US. AUN.

"For those of you who knew General Mohamed Abshir, Commander of the Somali National Police Force from independence until the Siad Barre coup, he passed away today.

For those of you who did not know him personally, he was a great friend of the Peace Corps. In the early years, he made all the District Police stations' radio communications available to PCVs in the field and the police District Commanders were instructed to ensure the safety of PCVs in their Districts.

For Somali 4s, he partnered with Bob Blackburn in our memorable Taleh (Taleex) adventure and enabled us to travel from Hargeisa by Mercedes police troop transports to Said Mohamed's fortress. And of course to meet Major Cosa Fare and the Darawish and to spend that remarkable Independence Day celebration outside the walls of Taleh.

I know from working at Police Headquarters for almost two years, and my meetings with him in the 1980s after he was released from solitary confinement in prison, he was a true Somali nationalist and a democrat (with a small d.)

I last saw him in Bosasso in 1993 when he was fighting Islamic extremists and saving, what is now Puntland, from the ravages of the warlords and clan in fighting. Subsequently, he came to the US and settled in Minnesota and he and I had numerous telephone calls over the years, usually on Idd al Fitr and July 1st. In the past few years he suffered from dementia but something deep within him remembered and he always asked me to extend his best wishes to Howa (Evelyn.)

Regards Marty"

Here's his Wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Abshir_Muse

He is the large man at the left in this photo, taken at our group's initiation at Taleex, the first week of July, 1966. I am next to the flag on the right.


View attachment 32805

AUN.

It seems Gen. Mohamed Abshir was quite over weight in the 60s. I saw him in the the US, he was much skinnier than this.

Anyways AUN.

Thanks for the post

 

[Merca]

AUN

 

[Grant]

http://www.startribune.com/obituary...er-of-somali-independence-movement/456731143/

Obituary in the Startribune:

"Abshir was mourned by Somali poets, political leaders and everyday citizens, who said his death marked the “end of a bygone era” in their country.

“One of the most professional of post-independence Somalis,” said Ahmed Samatar, a professor of international studies at Macalester College via e-mail from Somalia. “He was an exemplar of steely character, rare personal integrity and high civic virtue.”

During the chaotic early 1990s, marked by famine and civil war after Barre’s ousting, Abshir established a regional government in the northeastern region of Somalia. He maintained a relative peace by setting up a clan-based council of elders that drew members various subclans and minorities, according to a 1997 New York Times story.

“In the northeast, God forbid, we disagree but we don’t shoot each other,” Abshir told the newspaper."